


A letter home

by Elesianne



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Epistolary, Family, Gen, Kid Fic, Years of the Trees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27027547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elesianne/pseuds/Elesianne
Summary: EDIT ON 2ND DEC. I erroneously linked to this fic in my Tumblr post for the TSS Advent Calendar fic Fruitcake.That fic can be found here! Apologies for the mess-up.Young Caranthir is visiting his grandparents and sends a letter to his mother.This work is an English translation ofthis fic I wrote in Finnish.
Relationships: Caranthir | Morifinwë & Nerdanel
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	A letter home

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Kirje kotiin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26977588) by [Elesianne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elesianne/pseuds/Elesianne). 



> In this fic, Caranthir = Carnistir is still a child. Fanyë and Airion are original characters. They are Nerdanel’s brother’s children.
> 
> This is in purposefully simple language because it is a child's letter and I wanted the Finnish original to be readable to people learning Finnish, too, not just natives.

_Hello mama,_

begins Carnistir's letter in all its simplicity. Nerdanel smiles down at it. Carnistir's handwriting is angular and messy, and the paper a little crumpled. She is certain, however, that every word is meaningful.

_Hello mama,_

_I am alright here at grandpapa Mahtan and grandmama Tyelpefindien's house. My cousins are less annoying than my brothers, and shared lessons with them have mostly gone well. Better than with Tyelko._

_Fanyë and Airion and I made small carvings of wood with grandmama this week, and pottery with grandpapa. I wanted to make animals. Airion made lumps that I did not recognise as anything before he told me what they are. But he is only small yet, and grandmama didn't give him a knife as sharp as she gave Fanyë and me for our carvings._

_Fanyë made flowers. I don't understand why because animals are much more interesting. She is very interested in flowers these days. I told her that she should start growing flowers instead of making inanimate things if she likes flowers so much. She shoved me and said that she can make flowers out of wood and clay all her life if she wants. I said that yes she can but she should only make them out of wood because her clay flowers are less nice._

_Her wooden flowers are rather wonderful. She made a rose with five layers of petals. They are very thin and fine, and my bird looks as much of a lump next to that rose as Airion's lump of clay which is supposed to be our grandparent's house. (It does not look like it.)_

_I am sending my wooden bird to you anyway, mama. I made its tail a little too long but it is a house martin, a kind of swallow that lives here. If you think that painting it the right colours would make it better (and more easily recognisable) will you get me suitable paints? I will paint it when I get home. I tried to make it easy to paint. Grandmama gave me advice._

_I am also sending you the cat I made of clay with grandpapa's guidance. He helped me keep its legs from falling apart. I am better at working with clay than Fanyë but I don't like the feeling when clay dries on my skin. I don't think that I want to keep making pottery when I am grown._

_As you said when I left, it is useful to try many different crafts so I will know better what I like and what I want to apprentice in._

_Tomorrow we are going to begin learning how to work metal with grandpapa, although I of course know the basics of it already. Fanyë doesn't, she only knows woodwork and whittling. After that grandpapa has promised to teach Fanyë and me the rudiments of stone-carving (Airion is too small to learn that.) It sounds interesting. You have not yet got to teaching me about carving stone._

_But I would like it better if instead of teaching me how to carve a single stone grandpapa taught me how a great number of suitably cut stones are used to make a building._

_Here in the mansions of Aulë, houses are different from the houses in Tirion. I want to know why, and how differently the building of them is done, or is it only the end result that is different. Grandmama says that the houses of the Vanyar are even more different. I would like to see them up close some day. Can we ride through a Vanya village or town or city this year when we go to the harvest festival? We don't need to tell papa about it._

Nerdanel smiles still but her smile is tinged with sorrow. After a moment's break she carries on reading.

 _I also want to look closely at the Falmari's houses the next time we go to the seashore,_ Carnistir writes.

_In the evenings, Fanyë and Airion and I have time to play, and the whole family here goes on walks in the forest and along the fields. Fanyë always wants to walk one of grandmama's dogs. They often make a lot of noise and they want to charge after every squirrel. I walk ahead of the others sometimes so that I don't need to mind the dogs._

_I miss you, mama, and papa and Maitimo and Cáno, but not Tyelko. I am still angry with him for his prank that wasn't funny at all._

_I might forgive him next week but I am not making a promise of that._

_Don't keep the cat and the bird too close to each other in case the cat eats the bird. (That is a joke.)_

_Yours_

_Morifinwë Carnistir_

_PS._ _I wrote Morifinwë for papa if he reads this letter after all. I wrote him his own letter but it is shorter._

Carnistir's clay cat and wooden bird arrived together with the letter. Nerdanel opens the carefully wrapped packages and touches the little bird's smooth head and the cat's slightly arched back. Both show clearly the signs of being a child's work – a nimble-fingered, eager-to-learn child's.

How Nerdanel misses her fourth child! But it is better for Carnistir to be away from home for a while, at his grandparents' enjoying their loving attention and teaching, far away from Tyelko and his restless pranks. If Carnistir wants to stay with his grandparents for a longer period of time, Nerdanel can ride there for a few days' visit. She could take Maitimo with her, perhaps. A small holiday from his studies would surely do some good for her conscientious first-born.

She goes to find good places for the clay cat and wooden bird. The bird she places on her bedside table to bring a smile to her face first thing in the morning, and the cat on the table in the corner of the dining room where the whole family can see it many times a day. As she walks from room to room, Nerdanel lists all the master builders and architects in Tirion, mulling over which one of them Carnistir might suit as an apprentice.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> I'm also on [Tumblr](https://elesianne.tumblr.com/).


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